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anilEhilated posted:I'm not sure that's the case - the expansions might have rebalanced her, but in vanilla PoE the NPC Paladin is one of the worst party members, extra abilities or not. I'm fairly sure that's outdated info by this point, balance has been adjusted a lot since then.
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Aug 26, 2016 17:01
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Kenny Logins posted:
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Aug 26, 2016 20:42
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:PoE has more trap builds than any grog RPG I can think of even though it was intended to avoid them Examples? Just because you're not playing a class perfectly optimally doesn't mean you've made a trap build. The difference between a perfectly optimal build and something strictly middle of the road isn't actually that huge in PoE. I mean, it's possible to make bad characters yes, but you basically have to take the stupidest options at drat near every juncture to accomplish that. This isn't a 3.X DnD game.
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Aug 27, 2016 01:24
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Head Hit Keyboard posted:Examples? Just because you're not playing a class perfectly optimally doesn't mean you've made a trap build. The difference between a perfectly optimal build and something strictly middle of the road isn't actually that huge in PoE. I put all my points into Profession: (Cooper) Now my character sucks at everything except barrel related challenges.
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Aug 27, 2016 01:30
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anilEhilated posted:Anything for Crusader Kings 2 if I never played a Paradox game? The wiki entry is pretty sparse. Definitely start as one of the Ireland guys in 1066, Dublin is probably best since they should inherit Leinster soon. The most important part of the game is inheritance - always be thinking, what would happen if my main guy died today? Really you want to be on primogeniture inheritance ASAP, gavelkind is a pain in the rear end to manage heir-to-heir. Keep track of the biggest threats within your realm, the siblings/relatives and powerful lower ranking nobles who could lead revolts against you, and keep them happy or keep them powerless. Do not expect to be able to wage wars without mercenaries for quite a while. Having a good council can make a huge difference, especially Chancellor if you are having to fabricate a lot of claims for invasions (you will in an Ireland game). And get your men married, you don't want your bloodline dying out no matter what. gohuskies fucked around with this message at 01:38 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 01:32
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:I put all my points into Profession: (Cooper) It occurs to me that you may be thinking of Path of Exile (which I have never played, one looks at that skill tree scared me away) when we're talking about Pillars of Eternity.
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Aug 27, 2016 05:41
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Kenny Logins posted:e: took a peek at the OP in the game's thread. Looks like there's now fleshed-out rogue/barbarian/monk NPCs so no gaps left to fill. Any particularly annoying fleshed-out NPCs that are smart to replace with my PC? Is Cipher still a fun/strong/interesting class to play? Any notable post-expansion balancing changes to take note of? I dunno about rogues, barbarians, or monks because I only played the game to completion at release. They could be expansion-only characters, for all I know. You can actually hire your own tailor-made party members from any inn in the game, full character creation screen and everything, and use them instead of named/plot-relevant characters (not that, like, anyone who isn't Durance is actually relevant to the story). If you don't like an NPC's build, gently caress 'em, bring your own! Cipher is great if you like casters. If you're familiar with the terminology, Clerics, Wizards, and Druids use old-school D&D Vancian Casting. Spells only refresh after a rest. Ciphers use a MP pool that refreshes after the end of every encounter. It also regenerates every time you land a hit! Even if you don't care about the tactical advantage of rebuilding your MP pool mid-combat, go with Cipher, if only out of convenience. Head Hit Keyboard posted:Also the NPC Paladin is like, super special snowflake. She has access to talents that no other Paladin can have due to her unique order. yeah but paladins blow anyway Fur20 fucked around with this message at 05:53 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 05:49
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Head Hit Keyboard posted:It occurs to me that you may be thinking of Path of Exile (which I have never played, one looks at that skill tree scared me away) when we're talking about Pillars of Eternity. Nah. I'm just making a dumb comment about D&D that's, in retrospect, only peripherally related to the topic at hand. I'm sure it's possible to make an underpowered character in Pillars of Eternity, but I don't think you need to really worry about making a super optimal character if you just want to play the game.
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Aug 27, 2016 08:52
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:PoE has more trap builds than any grog RPG I can think of even though it was intended to avoid them Follow up question: is there a hard limit on money in this game? I haven't noticed any areas replenishing monsters/loot or random encounters yet.
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Aug 27, 2016 13:42
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:PoE has more trap builds than any grog RPG I can think of even though it was intended to avoid them That's just plain not true, come on now.
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Aug 27, 2016 13:58
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Grim Dawn has even more useless builds than PoE so yeah.
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Aug 27, 2016 14:00
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Can someone like, explain the basic gameplay of MGS Ground Zeroes / 5 to me? My stealth game experience basically consists of Deus Ex 1-3 and Dishonored, where I'd generally put all the guards to sleep, kill the few that discovered me, and then explore the level in peace. The MGS conceit of "yeah, guards will keep waking up and spawning from off-screen, and when you hit the alarm they will come pouring out of a clown-car building, and you'll never ever ever be safe and free to explore" just makes me throw up my hands and uninstall.
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Aug 27, 2016 14:24
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Loudly murdering dudes with non-silenced weapons and failing to take out the communication relays will probably descend into clown car madness. Alternatives to this include capturing them all (knocking them out beforehand), blowing up the comms relays then going Rambo, sniping to reduce their numbers, sneaking up and stabbing guys, or quietly subduing them by sneaking up with your weapon drawn and ordering them to lie face down with their hands behind their head. The last option is the most rewarding in my opinion, but also the riskiest. Setting off an alert will cause all the previously incapacitated guys to get back up and rush you, also summoning reinforcements including Armor if the comms are still up. I am not a stealth wizard, but with some of the companions you get, and the marking system and stealth related upgrades it gets much easier. Going on a murder spree is definitely still fun, and you can eliminate everyone at a base without too much effort if you feel like it Vadun fucked around with this message at 14:45 on Aug 27, 2016 |
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Aug 27, 2016 14:43
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Kenny Logins posted:After a few hours in I guess I can see that there can be annoyingly suboptimal builds/parties. I see also though that you can build an NPC from scratch for a fee at the inn, and you can respec your main too. The Stronghold, if you take the effort to upgrade it (which you should, the rest bonuses alone are worth it) and actively defend it, will provide theoretically infinite money in the form of generic income as well as free swag from upgrades you can pick up, just for letting time pass. It's not really a huge amount of money but by mid-Act 2 you'll probably consistently have a six digit wallet as enemy cash and gear payouts get better and better while the number of things to buy starts to dwindle. Kind of like BG2 honestly. Money can be tight in Act 1 though.
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Aug 27, 2016 15:19
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Thing is, you don't really need to spend too much. Infinity Engine games had those incredibly expensive items, but PoE basically lets you upgrade whatever you like and turn it into endgame equipment that way. And while that is expensive, unless you switch weapons for a whole lot, it's nowhere near those 30k swords.
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Aug 27, 2016 17:14
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Anything for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided? Mostly I'm wondering if any augs are essential early on vs. what can wait. Also if there's any clear winners when it comes to equipment? In Human Revolution unlocking the access new areas augs (wall punch, high jump, etc) was essential, and silenced pistols were baller so I'm going to assume this is still true unless someone tells me otherwise.
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Aug 27, 2016 18:33
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Ainsley McTree posted:Anything for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided? Mostly I'm wondering if any augs are essential early on vs. what can wait. Also if there's any clear winners when it comes to equipment? If you're planning on playing on PC, you may want to wait until two or three more patches. The performance isn't great. As for augs, surprisingly almost all look very good, unlike HR where half of them sucked donkey balls. Here, the only aug that looks useless is hacking:fortify.
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Aug 27, 2016 19:06
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exquisite tea posted:Grim Dawn has even more useless builds than PoE so yeah. Do you happen to know some of the bad builds? 
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Aug 27, 2016 19:29
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Mayor McCheese posted:Do you happen to know some of the bad builds? Any class combo that cannot stack absurd -Damage Resistances against monsters will be completely gimped at higher difficulties and you really have to favor maxing 1-2 active skills at most despite the skill trees presenting themselves as vast and open. There's a lot that I could say but it's best to just follow a class guide as there are many unintuitive aspects to itemization in TQ/GD that will be difficult to see unless you plan way in advance.
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Aug 27, 2016 22:24
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exquisite tea posted:Any class combo that cannot stack absurd -Damage Resistances against monsters will be completely gimped at higher difficulties and you really have to favor maxing 1-2 active skills at most despite the skill trees presenting themselves as vast and open. There's a lot that I could say but it's best to just follow a class guide as there are many unintuitive aspects to itemization in TQ/GD that will be difficult to see unless you plan way in advance. That said, you can do just fine with quite a few sub-optimal builds as long as you focus on what you want to do. The system is really about picking the direction you want to go and then going super hard in that direction. You probably don't need 7 different kinds of grenade or something. Pick a 2-3 active skills you like using and go for them. Then take passives that synergize with them. Don't feel obligated to max out the stuff adds on to your specific active skills. Some of them are good, some of them are one point wonders where you get a bunch of value just for having the big bonus for the first point and then terrible diminishing returns afterwards, and some are just crap. If you look at a passive that attaches to one of your active skills and you think it's not worth the points, then it probably isn't.
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Aug 27, 2016 22:43
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Man that's lame. ARPGs as of late lean too heavily on planning out builds. Now I have to see if my current kit is even worth the effort outside of farting around. Thanks for the info!
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Aug 27, 2016 22:48
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Xander77 posted:Can someone like, explain the basic gameplay of MGS Ground Zeroes / 5 to me? My stealth game experience basically consists of Deus Ex 1-3 and Dishonored, where I'd generally put all the guards to sleep, kill the few that discovered me, and then explore the level in peace. They don't spawn offscreen. In fact, if you murder nearby outposts, reinforcements take even longer to arrive because they have to appear from even farther outposts. I mean you can do the same thing you did in your other games, it's just that you need to either fulton the guards or kill them once you have knocked them out. Then you can explore in peace.
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Aug 27, 2016 23:06
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Xander77 posted:Can someone like, explain the basic gameplay of MGS Ground Zeroes / 5 to me? My stealth game experience basically consists of Deus Ex 1-3 and Dishonored, where I'd generally put all the guards to sleep, kill the few that discovered me, and then explore the level in peace. You can absolutely be a super sneaky person. There's an option that's on by default that will give you bullet time if you're detected so you can tranq them in the face. You can even get a helper companion who has an option for a tranq sniper rifle, so as you work through the base, someone else is helping you put people to sleep. You also have a tool called the fulton that you can use to make incapacitated enemies go away.
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Aug 27, 2016 23:13
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I don't think those are a thing in Ground Zeroes (I added MGS5 mostly based on the assumption that the basic gameplay is the same)
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Aug 27, 2016 23:23
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Xander77 posted:I don't think those are a thing in Ground Zeroes (I added MGS5 mostly based on the assumption that the basic gameplay is the same) Yeah, no fultons in Ground Zeroes. They're a huge part of the game in TPP though.
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Aug 27, 2016 23:39
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Xander77 posted:I don't think those are a thing in Ground Zeroes (I added MGS5 mostly based on the assumption that the basic gameplay is the same) The controls are the same but GZ and TPP are very different. Pretty much no advice besides basic "how to stealth around" stuff will apply to both, and even that's a bit different because you get way better silenced weapons really quickly in TPP. GZ is still really good, and I wish TPP had a single large base as refined as it.
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Aug 27, 2016 23:56
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Count Uvula posted:GZ is still really good, and I wish TPP had a single large base as refined as it. How is it even possible that they didn't reuse that base in TPP under some flimsy excuse?
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Aug 28, 2016 00:00
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CAPTAIN CAPSLOCK posted:They don't spawn offscreen. In fact, if you murder nearby outposts, reinforcements take even longer to arrive because they have to appear from even farther outposts.
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Aug 28, 2016 00:08
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Subjunctive posted:How is it even possible that they didn't reuse that base in TPP under some flimsy excuse? They were going to. You can even see it in trailers within a year of release and press releases saying you'd go back there. Like a sizable chunk of MGS5, it got cut.
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Aug 28, 2016 00:18
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Nohman posted:They were going to. You can even see it in trailers within a year of release and press releases saying you'd go back there. Like a sizable chunk of MGS5, it got cut. Why cut content that was already done?
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Aug 28, 2016 00:43
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Subjunctive posted:Why cut content that was already done? They're paying by the megabyte.
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Aug 28, 2016 00:56
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Ainsley McTree posted:Anything for Deus Ex: Mankind Divided? Mostly I'm wondering if any augs are essential early on vs. what can wait. Also if there's any clear winners when it comes to equipment? Hold on to neuropozyne, people trade things for it. All the mobility augs are still good, yes. High jump is great for finding areas to access, poison gas breathing is more useful than in the previous game too. Smart vision is basically detective mode and is also recommended. Hacking is still incredibly useful, but don't worry about unlocking level 5 hacking, just multitool that poo poo. The rewards are generally worth it. CASIE is still good if you like to win every argument and is pretty cheap considering how plentiful praxis is this time around. Without wishing to spoil things, it makes one sidequest more interesting too. There's some easily missed sidequests. Snoop around the courtyard near Adam's apartment for one, and when you've got some tools (ie. good guns and ammo), head down the sewer grate, again near Adam's apartment, for a couple more encounters.
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Aug 28, 2016 01:40
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Ryoshi posted:I lost my drat mind and bought a Wii U and a ton of games, what can people tell me about Xenoblade Chronicles X? IN GENERAL: Emphasize melee attack, ranged attack, or potential. You only have so many augment slots to use. Okay, I know everything, but in knowing everything, I know too much. I'll talk about classes first because it's the first thing I thought of. You can freely switch around classes with no real penalty, and getting a tier-4 class to level 10 unlocks its weapons for any other class, allowing you to mix-and-match. I have long since stopped considering classes except in terms of stats and skill slots and how they skew weapon drops. The 3 party members also affect it, so bringing Elma and Murdress along will skew the drops towards dual swords, while taking Doug and Yelv will net photon sabers, for examples. Drifter has 5 skill slots and 100% in all stats, so it's your best choice in nearly every build once you're done, but until then, leave it. Duelist has the worst total stats and the fewest skill slots, but going through it gets you Rising Blade, Tornado Blade, Offensive Stance, Power Dive, and Last Stand. The first three are part of the strictly best DPS build in the game, and the last two are pretty good (though you should trust Irina or HB for Last Stand frankly). Assault Rifles have some good-looking damage options and one of the better topple skills for topple-locking, though I haven't invested in them as much as I really want to. It gets you Mighty Muscle and Yamato Spirit and Fortified Flesh as skills, too. Bastion Warrior has the highest base HP and that matters a hell of a lot more than other stats from classes since your HP from gear isn't that huge compared to wearing more Aura Rapid Cooldown XX. Lowest potential but non-potential builds are good, too. I use 'em a lot. Never really experimented with shields or gatling guns as weapons though they look like they have some good tricks, and Topple Topper and Long Topple are part of topple-lock builds. Full Metal Jaguar has the highest evasion for blinktanking, and dual guns are bonkers. For damage you get the incredibly powerful Zero Zero from Celica, and for support Ghostwalker is broken as hell, at least against the things it works against. Early Bird and Primer are also pretty good, though Early Bird is mostly if you don't have a better aura elsewhere. For skills, Night Vision is incredibly potent and Hellhound and Phantom Counter work until you get the augments that do their job but better. Boosted Bullets, Combo Gunner, and Trigger Happy are all fantastic for anything based on gun'sbrasting. Oh uh Dual Swords they look fine, never really used them. I really, really like Sniper Rifles and Javelins but not together, which makes Astral Crusader kinda awkward for me. They also really depend on affinity mission arts. Conductive Strike defines the electric javelin build, and Long Shot is useful in a few places, maybe, sorta. Raijin is my favorite way to get Reflect in place, whatever that counts for. Mastermind is fantastically powerful but the game is sorta right about it being difficult to use. Knife/Raygun can go a few ways, but all rely on affinity missions with allies obtained way too late in the game. Knife-based damage builds need Black Bane to get going and demand you go solo so your allies don't break Screamer's Sleep. But as support you get Recuperate and Smooth Recovery for evasion buffs and Full Specs as the best drat damage buff for ranged weapons, and Screamer is always disturbingly useful and Black Butterfly does have a defense debuff. Rayguns are fantastically brutal, but that's with Beam Bomber obtained from the last party member only available in the post-game. Keep in mind, Sleep and Topple overwrite each other. For skills, you do get specialty ones to help with builds like Feather Touch/Unpleasant Dreams for sleep, but more important is Core Crusher. Core Crusher is the single reason why Ether is the best damage attribute in the game. Secondary Accelerator is also extremely good for spamming green arts to not die and keep overdrive going, like Ghostwalker. Galactic Knight will show my bias because Photon Sabers are my favorite melee weapon to use with Starfall Blossom/Rondo/Blade and Phenomenon providing a solid offense, and they have a reflect aura though that boosts beam damage when you want Ether for Core Crusher, and Astral Purge removes more debuffs than it should. Psycho Launchers are great ranged support weapons to use when Ghostwalker fails due to providing Astral Protection. Psycho Launchers also have some good debuffs like Shock, Topple, and Stun. For skills you get Aura Assault, Supreme Sword, and Fast Forward for spamming high-power melee arts. Synchrony is basically "you're better in your skell" and should be used if, well, you're in your skell. Weapon pairs that work? You want a damage-dealing weapon that does all the heavy lifting on reducing HP and a support weapon that mostly provides useful blue and green arts and maybe a debuff or two. Longswords/Dual Guns is objectively the most powerful build but it's a pain in the rear end to get all the potential up XX to make it really work and relies on Ghostwalker to not die. Everything hinges on Blossom Dance which is the best tension art in the game and Offensive Stance which is the best damage buff in the game. Photon Sabers/Dual Guns is my bread and butter since you just pump up melee attack and Starfall Rondo takes off a few hundred thousand HP in one blow, and it's perfectly strong even without all the XX augments to make it shine. Knife/Raygun works either on the Knife or Raygun but require some affinity mission arts and a few augments to truly come together, like I've described, but it's totally worth it. Javelin/Dual Guns as melee works but you kinda need Extend Shock XX to get somewhere. Javelin/Dual guns as ranged works off of supercharging Zero Zero. Both work off of having both Reflect and Decoy as defensive options and Hair Trigger/Primer around for damage buffs. Knife/Sniper Rifle is another one of those objectively too-good builds since you Screamer something asleep and Slayonet it to keep it from ever waking up. I've seen Javelin/Psycho Launcher and Photon Saber/Psycho Launcher tank builds work. Javelin/Assault Rifle has stun/stagger/topple to keep some enemies from doing things but isn't too high on damage itself. Knife/Dual Guns works like Knife/Sniper Rifle with Zero Zero instead of Slayonet. Really any melee/Dual Guns can work with Early Bird, Primer, Ghostwalker, and the melee weapon's dps options. Theoretically Javelin/Raygun would work, Raijin/Hair Trigger with good ol' Beam Bomber, after all. Anything else I didn't mention either isn't something I haven't toyed with or doesn't really have the synergy to work. I've barely scratched the surface. Oh my god.
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Aug 28, 2016 02:44
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Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:CLASS STUFF I understand the desire to explain everything about XCX, as poo poo is incredibly in-depth and fun to think about, but don't forget this is the thread for important things to know BEFORE you play. Giving a detailed class breakdown is probably too much information and likely a bit overwhelming. The most important thing to get out of this whole post is that one shouldn't be afraid to experiment, and that EVERY weapon is viable in their own way, if you set it up right and play to its strengths. Some options are superior to others, but generally speaking you can cobble together a build to make anything work, with enough effort. And even then a decent build is only really necessary for doing end-game/post-game stuff on foot. Generally speaking any random combination will get you through like 90% of the game, no problem. XCX is just a very fun game to optimize your build in.
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Aug 28, 2016 03:07
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I bought Conquest of Elysium 4 since it was on sale and the concept was intriguing. However I got no idea what to do since every class plays so differently.
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Aug 28, 2016 03:51
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Mr. Dragoon posted:I bought Conquest of Elysium 4 since it was on sale and the concept was intriguing. However I got no idea what to do since every class plays so differently. While this is not in place of any answers you may receive in this thread, check the Roguelikes thread too. People have been talking about it there with lots of tips recently.
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Aug 28, 2016 03:53
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Infinity Gaia posted:I understand the desire to explain everything about XCX, as poo poo is incredibly in-depth and fun to think about, but don't forget this is the thread for important things to know BEFORE you play. Giving a detailed class breakdown is probably too much information and likely a bit overwhelming. The most important thing to get out of this whole post is that one shouldn't be afraid to experiment, and that EVERY weapon is viable in their own way, if you set it up right and play to its strengths. Some options are superior to others, but generally speaking you can cobble together a build to make anything work, with enough effort. Ah, true. Ahem. The game has very few penalties for exploring and experimenting as long as you don't get your skell destroyed, so don't be afraid to try something wacky and run up to something that seems too strong. The worst that happens is you respawn a fair bit away. No lost EXP or items, nothing. Also expand FrontierNav like a motherfucker. Plant those probes. XCX is secretly a stealth game as you avoid aggroing level 50 stuff to plant more probes.
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Aug 28, 2016 03:58
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Orange Fluffy Sheep posted:Ah, true. Unless that big level-100 colossus has a big orange eye besides its name, it's not going to want poo poo to do with you so long as you don't stab it in the ankles. Don't be afraid about wandering past level 30-50 critters when you're only level 10 or whatever unless you see an eye besides their name.
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Aug 28, 2016 04:03
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Neddy Seagoon posted:Unless that big level-100 colossus has a big orange eye besides its name, it's not going to want poo poo to do with you so long as you don't stab it in the ankles. Don't be afraid about wandering past level 30-50 critters when you're only level 10 or whatever unless you see an eye besides their name. Even if they got the eye, they follow a pretty strict vision cone rule. An early game quest is designed to teach you this (the one with the lost communicator between two grexes). As such, you can definitely stealth into places you really shouldn't be to slam down a probe. In fact, the game will ask you to stealth past tougher enemies a lot, so learning how to game the sight lines as early as possible isn't a terrible idea. Oh, something that might be worth mentioning: Decisions you make during the main story mean jack, but decisions you make during Normal Missions can RADICALLY alter your experience. So, uh, take any choice you make during a Normal Mission seriously, just in case.
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Aug 28, 2016 04:08
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Infinity Gaia posted:Even if they got the eye, they follow a pretty strict vision cone rule. An early game quest is designed to teach you this (the one with the lost communicator between two grexes). As such, you can definitely stealth into places you really shouldn't be to slam down a probe. In fact, the game will ask you to stealth past tougher enemies a lot, so learning how to game the sight lines as early as possible isn't a terrible idea. These won't affect the main story in the slightest, but they can alter how further Normal Missions occur relating to those background characters. And they can and will die if you make poor choices. Nothing stupid like "KEEP THESE PEOPLE ALIVE IN A FIGHT OR ELSE", but more like "well you told the idiot to hold the line instead of run away over the radio. He died like a chump".
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Aug 28, 2016 04:12
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